The Spirit
by Lothiriel daughter of Neiriel
Summary: What happens when Colonel William Stryker asks Sarah Rose Cooper to join Team X? Well I'm terrible at summaries. So, please read and review. :
1. Song of the Century

**Disclaimer: I do not own x-men. However Sarah and everything else so far is my own creation.**

**Read&Review please.**

**Enjoy :]**

Chapter 1 of: The Spirit

Preface

My name is Sarah Rose Cooper, but because of a series of events and a distinct mutation in my genes, I have earned the nick name of the Spirit. The year was 1961 when I first realized I was different than most people my age, you see most 13 year olds couldn't disintegrate their own body into a silvery mist, at least not that I knew of. I was at the infamous Margo's 13th birthday party (I say infamous because I associate her with making my life a living hell during junior high) and I was sitting on a bench next to Teru Namikawa, the Japanese boy who had just moved to Denver from Tokyo, in Margo's expansive and lavish back yard. I had the biggest crush on him at the time and unfortunately so did Margo, this was probably the reason she was disgusted by me so much. Margo, she was the most popular girl in the seventh grade, her parties were probably the only thing that were more talked about than she was, everybody went which meant even some dork like me got the invite as well. She was an extremely vain being, loving her looks so much I don't think she ever even realized that she was only average looking, those are the worst possible types of vain people in my opinion. Her brown hair was overly styled and she had a pig nose, not to mention she was a tad on the chubby side, it was more of everyone's mutual fear of Margo that earned her the popularity rather than her personality, she was nasty and in every sense of the word.

Anyway, I was sitting on the bench next to Teru who just happened to be the most popular boy, when I felt his hand brush against mine. My cheeks blushed almost as red as my hair as I looked over at him, he was smiling at me as he slipped his hand into mine and laced our fingers together. A rush of adrenaline shot through my body and stung at my finger tips as his black eyes bore into my green ones, piercing straight through them sharply like katana blades. The stare was so intense that I almost didn't hear him say to me, "Will you go with me?" in his extremely good, but heavily accented English. At that moment it felt like a wave rolled through my entire body, lingering and building pressure in my eyes. I felt as the irises expanded, momentarily blinding me.

When my sight returned, I discover the look on his face. It was no longer anything to blush over and his eyes were panicked with confusion. "Y-y-your eyes!" he stuttered, letting go of my hand. "They were green and now they're silver!" this statement sent a feeling of horror through my body and leaving my stomach feeling like a rock. Another wave went through my body, this time much more intense and leaving me with a feeling of weightlessness. A refreshing chill cooled me through to my bones and it felt as though I were floating in a cloud.

"What the hell!" he gasped as he had witnessed the first time my body had ever disintegrated into my 'spirit' form. " 'Oly chit, get that away from me!!" he yelled and fell to the ground and stumbled away. Teru was referring to the silver mist that was now me.

Terrified, I floated away from the scene and past the gaping preteens, through the walls of Margo's house, through people even, and to my house where I promptly went into my room where I tried hopelessly for two hours to change back into my human form. When I was finally able to, my parents had already been notified that I was missing. My mother was waiting in the living room by our only phone and my father was out in the car searching the city. At first my body was translucent, then it started to become more solid and once it was back to normal I ran to my mirror, almost knocking it down in the process and examined the changes. Nothing was any different in my appearance, I had the same red hair and the same petite and slender figure, the only change was in my eyes. They were once a bright green, but they had transformed into a shining silver, now you could get lost in their bottomless pits for eons.

My mom burst into the room upon hearing my movement. "Oh honey!" she ran up and hugged me, I was too rattled to react to it at all. "Where have you been?" the worry in her voice was broken by the quivering of oncoming tears of relief. "Oh, and what has happened to your eyes?"

"Mom, I think something is wrong with me." I said with my voice full of terrified disgust. I stepped back from her and disintegrated into my 'spirit' and faded back again.

"Oh! Oh my god!" was all my mother could force out before she stumbled out of my room.

I sat on my bed hours later as I listened to my parent's conversation through the thin walls. "I can't believe it. Our own daughter a-a _mutant_!" my mother said the word _mutant_ as if it tasted like poison. "There must be something that can be done Rick."

"There's nothing that can be done, Marylyn, we'll just have to make do." my father tried to comfort my mother.

"Oh! Why did this have to happen to us? Why! What the hell did we do to deserve this, this _disaster_?!" my mom said disaster more as a noun than as an adjective.

From that point on my parents were never the same to me, I wasn't even there to them, they ignored me for five years. I took gymnastics, martial arts, and ran just to get out of the house and away from their cold, piercing eyes that seemed to say, _why they hell don't I just through you out and pretend we never had you!_ The day I graduated high school and packed up to move out was the happiest day of my life. I never attended college seeing as I couldn't get the money for it like normal children, so I moved to California and began a new life working jobs other people were too good for.

The day my mutation kicked in was the day the death sentence for Sarah Rose Cooper was signed and the birth certificate for Spirit was printed.

**A/N: Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the preface of my story. Please review and tell me if it was any good or not. Oh and sorry if it was a bit short and dry, but in the next chapter is when the story truly begins and gets better, I just needed to get the background out of the way.**


	2. 21st Century Breakdown

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men. Duh.

Anyhow… I'm sorry if its taken so long for me to update, there was a really good book I was wrapped up in, then I got sick, I had to go through this huge ordeal to get my permit :[, then I was just plain lazy. Sorry, lo siento, …..*sorry in some other language*.

Well, I would like to think that this was worth the wait. **Enjoy! :]**

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Chapter 1 or The Spirit:

1972, I'm 24.

I look out across the boardwalk and to the beach, the waves aren't breaking as loud as before, low tide. Its 4 p.m. so the majority of the Los Angeles beach crowd have left for the day. With my chin resting on my palm I try my best to relieve the immanent boredom that arrives everyday at this time by people watching, and people watching anywhere in Los Angeles, especially at the beach, always proves to be and interesting experience. As I watch all the beach goers hustle on by, I notice almost all of them have the same deep back-from-the-beach-tan. I look down at my own skin, so pale, I haven't been able to tan for many years now. Since I work right across the street from the beach you'd think the tan would have been inevitable, but no, I've had this vampire pale complexion since I was 13 and always will. My theory, just another unfortunate side effect of my already ghost-like mutation.

The side effects of my mutation are numerous, as I've discovered them as the years have passed. The first being my very unnatural silver eye color, I swear sometimes they even reflect light , they're so silver. Second, my ghostly pale skin. Third being my steps and actions are completely silent. The fourth is by far the most surprising; I'm not human, yes I'm a mutant but I'm much more inhuman than most mutants ever are. Not a single cell, tissue, or organ of mine could ever be mistaken for human. Though my appearance wouldn't give myself away; the straight red hair, my petite 5'4" build and slim figure would all point to normal; but a closer look beneath my skin would reveal something quite extraordinary actually. My muscles are built for endurance (it takes a lot to transform myself) and are unusually strong, but not Superman strong, just enough to give me a bit of an edge. My joints, they are much more flexible than most people thankfully, or else I'd be doing a _lot_ of stretching before I ever transform into my 'spirit'.

As I wait for the dinner rush, bored out of my mind here at _Dusty's Pizza Stand_ I wonder; what would my life have been like if I'd never been well, _'special'_. my parents would have loved me, that one is obvious. I would have continues in gymnastics, having a natural ability for it even before I discovered what I am, maybe even starting up my own training center or even going to the Olympics. My parents have money, it would have been a completely reasonable dream. But here I am, stuck in Los Angeles renting a crappy apartment, never having taken the chance to travel the world much less make enough to cover rent.

A man with salt and pepper hair neatly combed walks up to the stand, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look at him funnily, he's a bit overly dressed for the hot, summer weather. "Hello, how may I help you?" I force out a fake smile.

"My name is William Stryker." I look around him, a line which I can only assume is the large dinner rush, is forming behind him. Just order the pizza, don't fool around with names!

"Umm," I say, the line behind him is growing exponentially. "Okay. What'll you have?"

"Actually I need to talk to you about something very important." he says. "Perhaps now is a good time for your dinner break?"

"Uh, yeah. Okay. Frank!" I call out to the greasy man who works ovens. "I'm taking 15!"

"Okay!" he calls out to me. His head pops into view through the small window separating the kitchen from the counter. " Wait! Hey! What about all these people?" but its too late, I'm out of the stand and walking away, pretending to be out of hearing range.

William and I walk around to the back and sit down at the picnic table provided for the employees on their breaks. " I know what you can do, Sarah. It's a brilliant power you have." I tense at these words, nobody know about my abilities… except for my parents. But if you ask them, they'll deny it.

"H-how do you know?!" I can feel the waves of terror roll through me, I want nothing more to disappear and leave this place. Shame of my abilities causes me to avert my eyes.

"That's not important at the moment. Now I've come to you because I've put together a special team and I'd like to have you on board. Your power is like nothing I have seen in all my years I've worked with your kind, you have a lot of potential Sarah, if you join we can develop your mutation and see your full potential. Now, are you in?" I stare at him, slightly baffled with all that he's just offered me.

"I don't know, I prefer to blend in. Developing my mutation isn't really anything I'm interested in." I look down and fidget with my fingernails nervously.

"Well, I've prepared for that answer Ms. Cooper. I know what it will take to make join." his business-like face suddenly turned devious as a devilish grin appeared on his face.

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We arrive at the facility after 10 hours on the plane, Stryker was right, he does know what it takes to make me join. It took 2 million dollars and my own indoor gym that consists of basic gymnastic essentials, plus a half sized track running around all the equipment. The facility that all them members of this Team X, that I am now apart of, live at is located I the middle of nowhere. Its in some forested area, but that's as much as I can tell. Stryker leads me inside to the main room of there living quarters. There are six big men lounging around and the second they see Stryker, they all stand.

"Men, this is Sarah Rose Cooper," he moves to the side so the others can see me. "the last member of the team." at that, all their eyes widen as they take in all 5'4" of me, which is probably quite a sight because they are all about two heads taller than me.

I look at them one at a time, and they all have the same confused and surprised looks on their faces and they're all huge! I see none of them took advantage of customizing their military uniforms like Stryker offered. _'Depending on all the different mutations, we find that some are more comfortable in different clothes. And we want our team to be as comfortable as possible seeing as we're doing things that normal soldiers would never be able to.'_ Except the one on the end, he'd chosen a red t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. As my eyes scan him, he lets a whistle escape his lips in the silence. I stand there, extremely intimidated, in my customized grey military pants (unlike the sea of green that stands before me) fitted to be skin tight; hey it allows easier movement when I'm doing my thing; with straps and holsters strapped to my thighs and waist, and a normal deep grey tank. That's when I realize it, I'm the only woman. This will be interesting. But seeing as I'm a lost soul who's losing what is left of my mind, I don't see any other options. Not that Stryker left me with any.

"Have fun. Oh, and training starts at six a.m. tomorrow." Stryker announces as he turns around and leaves. Everyone groans, thankfully I'm not the only one who thinks that is an unreasonable time.

The second the one in the red sees that Stryker is gone, he takes the opportunity and slides up next to me snaking his arm around my waist. "Well hello gorgeous, finally there is something pretty to look at around here!" I look up at him confused, trying to inch away but finding his grip too strong on me. "Oh, where are my manners. I'm Wade Wilson, but you can call whatever you want, roommie!" he says trying to be seductive.

"What?! First, Stryker said nothing about me being the only woman, now I have to share a room!" my voice gets slowly higher as I panic about this deep shit I've gotten myself into. I look over at one of the men who's sitting on the couch, his face is about 2/4 mutton chops, ¼ beautiful eyes, 1/8 luscious brown hair, and 1/8 of the second cutest nose I've ever seen. The first belonging to the other man with mutton chops and freaky claws. He shakes his head indicating that I do not have to share a room. Thank God!

"Hey Wade, get off of her, you already scared her enough by making her think that she has to share a room with you!" he says trying to save me, I thank him with my eyes.

"No!" he says like a two year old, pulling my into a suffocating hug with his other arm and attempting to burry his face into my chest. "You're only jealous because I got to her first." and at that I evaporate and quickly drift to the couch where I solidify in time to see him fall forward with his arms searching to find me. He looks over at the couch where I'm now sitting. "What the hell?!"

"Sorry Wade, I guess your ego overshadows me so much… I just dissolve into thin air." I wave my hand like a magician laughing, the one sitting next to me chuckles at this too.

He looks over at me. "I'll show you to the room you'll actually be staying in." we get up and walk towards the hall. "Now unfortunately, Wade's is next door…"

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**A/N: **While writing this chapter I had an amazing idea, I will mane ever chapter after a song from Green Day's CD 21st Century Breakdown, because I realize that the songs can kind of match what's going on in the story. Also, the song title of this chapter is 21st Century Breakdown… but I know the story actually takes place in the 20th century obviously… so yea we'll all have to deal with that slight inconvenience. Sorry.

**Read & Review! :]**


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